5 Ways to Turn Learning into a Game

When you awaken their curiosity, kids are willing to learn everything. They are wondering about the stars, the Sun, insects, animals, and everything else that surrounds them. When they enter the educational process, however, they start relating learning to a mandatory activity that usually gets boring. How do we bring that initial curiosity back?

There is a sneaky strategy that every teacher and parent will find useful: turn learning into a game. Schoolwork and homework don't have to be related to boredom, expectations and misery. A smart educator can turn them into fun activities that initialize the love for lifelong learning. It takes a lot of patience for a teacher to adopt the gamification approach. You'll come across undisciplined students who will want to play more. However, the final effect is well worth it. You can use one of these 5 ways or a combination of them to turn learning into a game the students will love:

1. Storytelling

Storytelling works because it engages the listener. It activates emotions that they relate to that particular story. The engagement itself enhances the student's memory. The only question is: how do you use storytelling when presenting lectures?
Every lesson is a story in its own way. You can take an idea out of any concept and dramatize it to tell a story. The story about Sir Isaac Newton and the apple is one of the most famous anecdotes in the history of science. It's a nice example of a lesson turned into a story that the students will remember.


Remember: each story has a hero. You can't just use your voice to make the lesson from the textbook sound dramatic. You need to come up with a hero who goes through a relevant experience. If, for example, you're teaching about World War I, you can come up with few characters from different sides. Your students will imagine them as real persons and they will understand what they went through. Suddenly, history will become more than a list of events and boring dates to remember. It will become real.

Now, the question is: how can storytelling become a game? When you let your students take part in the story's development, you will turn it into an interactive game.



2. Challenges

The challenge is an important element of each game. When kids play, they do it to win something. You need to take that aspect into consideration when gamifying the learning process. You can provide the challenges in the form of quizzes, but they mustn't be related to grades. The grades will ruin the fun. After teaching a lesson, think of few interesting questions that require logical thinking. They shouldn't be easy; they should be challenging. When your students solve the riddle, they will conquer the challenge and you'll give them something in return. The reward can be a no homework day or a picnic in the school's yard.



3. A Monthly Comic Reading Event

You may assume that comics are meant for pure entertainment, but you'll be surprised with the things your students can learn from them. Comics rely on the power of storytelling. The visual elements make them way more attractive than plain books. Believe it or not, the students won't be skimming lightly over the words. Comics are intertwined with intelligent humor that makes every word important. That's why the students will make an effort to read everything.

Your task is to pick a student-friendly comic book and distribute the edition to the students. Allow them to explore it at home. Then, organize a monthly reading event. Everyone will have a character and you'll all make a great show. What will the students learn? Vocabulary! Comic books introduce them to new words, which you can define together. In addition, you should ask them to pay attention to the punctuation marks and discuss why they are being used in a particular sentence.


4. Develop Your Own Game

Okay, it's time to bring up the big issue: tablets, smartphones and computers. Your students are mesmerized by technology. Each and every one of them likes playing games. You may perceive that interest as a distraction from learning, but you can turn it to your advantage, too.

Genie is one of the many online tools that help you create game-based learning content. You won't have to design the game from scratch; you can use a template and bring your story into it. The great thing is that the tool is collaborative, so you can include all students in the process of game authoring. These are few of the gaming concepts you can explore: Puzzle Pack, Countdown Clock, Pole Position, Monster Sweep, Mountain Master, and World Wanderer. They sound so cool, right?



5. Board Games

Board games are a great foundation for learning. It's easy to create a large board game. You can base the concept on the classic German board game. There's a difference: you won't play it in the usual way. Whenever a student rolls the dice, it will take them to another field on the board. You'll prepare interesting pieces of information for each field, and you'll give them as rewards. The student will read the card to the other players, so they will all learn the fact. Those who lose will have to answer questions, but make sure they are easy and funny, so you won't make the losers feel punished. You can use this concept to gamify any lesson.

Are you ready to have some fun teaching? Infuse competition, challenges, and rewards in your teaching methods, and you'll have smiley faces all over the classroom. Puzzles, role playing, tablet apps, creative projects… you have tons of opportunities to explore.

Khan Academy made people from all around the world fall in love with learning thanks to gamification. You can easily find online resources and use them in your classroom, but you can create your own games, too. Hopefully, we inspired you to make a change that your students will love.


Lucy Benton is a writing coach, editor at BestEssayTips. She specializes in content writing for marketing purposes. She studied Creative and Professional Writing at Maharishi University of Management. She cooperates with websites, resources and news blogs.